~snip~ It wasn't always like this. Between 1978 and 2008, Oklahoma averaged fewer than two significant earthquakes per year. In 2014, that number had spiked to 585, including 19 that measured a powerful 4.0 magnitude or stronger...

Magellan Midstream Partners and Plains All American Pipeline are teaming up on a new $850 million, 550-mile pipeline to carry crude oil from Colorado to Cushing, Oklahoma. The new pipeline, called the Saddlehorn, will be built and owned by the Saddlehorn Pipeline Co., a 50-50 joint venture between the two companies. In an announcement Friday, Plains and Magellan said the new line has binding commitments from producers Noble Energy and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., and that Anadarko has an option to obtain a 20 percent stake in the venture. The line could be in service by mid-2016 if permitting and construction...

The people who ran the Abercrombie & Fitch Kids store at a Tulsa mall in 2008 were inclined to hire Samantha Elauf. The 17-year-old got high marks in her first interview for a sales position on such criteria as “appearance and sense of style” and “outgoing and promotes diversity.” Part of Elauf’s appearance, however, was the headscarf she wore because she’s a Muslim. The store employees in charge of hiring thought it might conflict with the company’s “Look Policy” so they called the district manager for advice. He told them not to hire her. The company has been in a...

Dale Long died in the same red car he used to run into an apartment security guard on a cold night in early January. Long, who had been arrested in Tulsa nearly a dozen times since the early 1990s, was spotted by security officers who recognized him not only as the source of the disturbance to which they were responding but also as someone who had been banned from the property. Tulsa police homicide Sgt. Dave Walker said Long was shot in the torso when the security officer he ran into pushed away from the vehicle and fired a single...

DENVER — Colorado already is being sued by two neighboring states for legalizing marijuana. Now, the state faces groundbreaking lawsuits from its own residents, who are asking a federal judge to order the new recreational industry to close. The owners of a mountain hotel and a southern Colorado horse farm argue in a pair of lawsuits filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver that the 2012 marijuana-legalization measure has hurt their property and that the marijuana industry is stinky and attracts unsavory visitors.

Since economies drive commodity prices, not the other way around, the collapse in oil is more of a demand issue than it appears, said Stephen Schork, founder and editor of The Schork Report newsletter. The influential oil analyst told CNBC on Friday that there's an "absolute glut" in crude, but the demand side of the equation can't be overlooked. "When you have such a sharp fall in commodity prices, that's because of economic demand. And I think that's a very worrisome telltale." "Oil prices are the canary in the coal mine," Schork said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "I don't...

Some opponents of Common Core apparently have now turned their guns on Advanced Placement courses. The legality of teaching Advanced Placement courses in Oklahoma public schools was raised Monday during a House Common Education Committee hearing on a bill aimed at the AP U.S. history guidelines. That measure, House Bill 1380, by Rep. Dan Fisher, R-Yukon, would direct the state Board of Education to review those guidelines and bar the use of state funds for AP U.S. history courses. During discussion and debate, however, it was suggested that AP courses are similar to Common Core, in that they could be...

<p>A state lawmaker says anyone with a license to carry a handgun in Oklahoma should be allowed to bring the weapon into the state Capitol building.</p>
<p>Republican Rep. John Bennett of Sallisaw has authored a bill allowing those with a permit to carry a weapon into what he calls "the people's Capitol."</p>

A winter storm could dump 3 to 7 inches of snow and sleet in the Tulsa area overnight into Monday, forecasters said. Tulsa and surrounding counties are under a winter storm warning from until noon Monday. "Travel will become very hazardous," the National Weather Service said. Forecasters said snow was likely to continue early Monday, with chances of precipitation in the Tulsa area around 70 percent. The winter storm started Sunday as freezing rain, then drizzle before changing over to snow. "Around 3 to 7 inches of snow and sleet accumulation is expected mainly north of (U.S.) 412, with the...

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- Small earthquakes shaking Oklahoma and southern Kansas daily and linked to energy drilling are dramatically increasing the chance of bigger and dangerous quakes, federal research indicates. This once stable region is now just as likely to see serious damaging and potentially harmful earthquakes as the highest risk places east of the Rockies such as New Madrid, Missouri, and Charleston, South Carolina, which had major quakes in the past two centuries. Still it's a low risk, about a 1 in 2,500 years' chance of happening, according to geophysicist William Ellsworth of the U.S. Geological Survey.

In Glenpool, Oklahoma, a mother is upset after her son’s teacher confiscated his Valentine’s Day cards. During the second grader’s class party, he participated in handing out candy and valentines to his classmates. The card he distributed said “Happy Valentine’s Day” on one side, but on the other side, there was information about church services at LifeChurch. After seeing that, the teacher snatched up each card and got rid of them. Shelley Sweeden, the student’s mother said, “It feels he’s been denied the right to express his love for his church and his faith.” FOX23 downloaded the school’s handbook and it...

State legislators around the country have introduced more than 200 bills aiming to nullify regulations and laws coming out of Washington, D.C., as they look to rein in the federal government. The legislative onslaught, which includes bills targeting federal restrictions on firearms, experimental treatments and hemp, reflects growing discord between the states and Washington, state officials say. “You have a choice,” said Kentucky state Rep. Diane St. Onge (R). “To sit back and not do anything or say anything and let overregulation continue — or you have the alternative choice to speak up about it and say, ‘We know what...

Gasoline prices are moving back closer to the $2 a gallon mark across Oklahoma, according to the gasoline website Gas Buddy. The site says Oklahoma’s average has jumped 14 cents a gallon in the past week to a new level of $1.98 a gallon. A month ago, the statewide average was $1.82 a gallon. Nationally, GasBuddy.com reports an average of $2.17 a gallon, which is a 12 cent jump in the past week and only a penny more than a month ago. The cheapest gasoline found in Oklahoma is $1.67 a gallon in Tulsa. Prices of $1.77 a gallon are...

A national activist group – which used Tom Steyer’s Colorado political firm to lobby the state’s oil and gas task force – cancelled an anti-fracking rally today after just one person RSVPed. The decision to abandon the rally followed very low turnout at a protest yesterday outside the Colorado Convention Center, where the task force has been meeting the past two days. At yesterday’s demonstration, there were more protest signs than there were protestors to hold them. Clean Water Action Colorado’s Facebook page for the rally mentions how the group “has turned out impacted and frustrated Coloradans for rallies at...

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Muslim Day at the Capitol will be held at the end of the month for members of the religion to learn more about state government and become more familiar with their lawmakers. The Oklahoma chapter for the Council on American-Islamic Relations organized the event for the first time this year. News of the event did encounter backlash on social media, however. “It’s kind of depressing to see such hatred and negativity, especially about practicing a right that’s fundamentally American,” said CAIR Executive Director Adam Soltani. Comments were made on social media such as “I’m sick of...

LOCUST GROVE, Okla. -- Three young girls were brutally murdered nearly 38 years ago in a wooded area that was once full of frolic and fun. Before that horrific day in 1977, it was a magic place for girls of the "Magic Empire" created for Girls Scouts to camp in and enjoy the wonders of the outdoors. Camp Scott, located in Locust Grove, had been a retreat for Girl Scouts and Brownies since 1928. Its 410 wooded acres could accommodate 140 campers and 30 staff. The Cookie Trail road led to ten camping units scattered throughout the green beauty. Two...

A bill to further restrict abortion in Oklahoma and another to make embryonic stem cell research illegal both cleared a House committee on Wednesday, despite concerns from a doctor on the panel. While activists gathered at the Capitol for the annual anti-abortion Rose Day rally, the House Public Health Committee voted mostly along party lines to approve both bills. An exception was Rep. Doug Cox, a Grove Republican and an emergency room physician who opposed both measures. One bill would increase from 24 to 72 hours the amount of time a woman must wait before receiving an abortion after receiving...

Union leaders called strikes on Sunday at nine U.S. refineries in a bid to pressure oil companies to agree to a new national contract covering workers at 63 plants. The walkouts, the first held in support of a nationwide pact since 1980, target plants that together account for more than 10 percent of U.S. refining capacity. The discord comes as plunging crude prices force oil companies to slash spending. Royal Dutch Shell, the lead industry negotiator, indicated talks had broken down. ... Shell activated a strike contingency plan at its sprawling joint venture refinery in Deer Park, Texas, to keep...

In what has been described as a new front in the battle over same-sex marriage, legislators in several states under judicial orders to confer marital status on same-sex couples have introduced bills to forbid state or local officials from issuing marriage licenses to couples of the same gender. The bills would also strip the salaries of employees who issued the licenses, the New York Times reported Thursday.The bills have been introduced in the legislatures of Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas, with South Carolina also considering a bill that would allow officials to opt out of issuing such licenses if it...

Tulsa-based drilling rig maker and operator Helmerich & Payne Inc. expects to lay off 2,000 employees companywide, it announced Thursday during a conference call. The cuts, which are already beginning, are spurred by a reduction in rig use due to falling crude oil prices, CEO John Lindsay said during the earning call with analysts. Helmerich & Payne employs about 500 in Tulsa and nearly 12,000 companywide. The overall reduction is about 17 percent of the company’s total workforce. “This is without question the worst part of the downturn,” Lindsay said. Lindsay revealed the layoffs shortly after a company earnings report...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Monday that both Nevada and Tennessee have joined the Lone Star state's challenge of President Obama's executive amnesty, bringing the total number of states fighting Obama's unilateral immigration policies to 26. “Texas is proud to lead a coalition that now includes a majority of the United States standing up against the President’s rogue actions,” Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “The momentum against the President's lawlessness continues to build with Tennessee and Nevada joining the effort to protect our states from the economic and public safety implications of illegal amnesty. As President...

Reacting to the news that the Supreme Court will take up a case concerning Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol, the state Attorney General on Monday said he will ask the Justices to temporarily postpone the scheduled execution of three death row inmates involved in the challenge. Attorney General Scott Pruitt said that he thought the Supreme Court will ultimately uphold the constitutionality of the protocol, but that while the case is under consideration, he would ask the justices to grant a stay of the executions. "The families of the victims in these three cases have waited a combined 48 years for...

While the battle over same-sex marriage in Alabama is heating up, it has already reached a boiling point in Oklahoma. And the fight there could very well signal what's ahead here. Oklahoma legislator Rep. Todd Russ - an Assemblies of God minister- has filed a bill requiring that only "an ordained or authorized preacher or minister of the Gospel, priest or other ecclesiastical dignitary of any denomination" be allowed to sign marriage certificates. County judges would be prohibited from performing weddings and no clerks could issue marriage licenses. No religious officiant? You're out of luck, though you can file an...

A Tulsa World analysis of voting behavior and other factors ranks Oklahoma the second-most conservative state in the nation after Utah. The Legislature convening Feb. 2 will be among the most Republican in the nation. The rise of the Republican Party has brought a shift to more business-oriented policies: workers comp and lawsuit reform, reductions in income-tax rates, right to work, weakened regulatory agencies and a push for privatization of everything from education to elevator inspections. “A lot of people think it’s Democrat versus Republican,” said former Democratic Gov. George Nigh, who was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives...

An Oklahoma inmate executed amid a legal challenge over lethal injection began complaining about the effects on his body before the drugs were administered, prompting some to question whether he may have exaggerated his symptoms to help his fellow death row inmates' case. Charles Warner, who was executed Thursday for the killing of an 11-month-old girl in 1997, said during his last words: 'It feels like acid.' The comment came before any of the lethal drugs were administered and while he was only receiving a saline drip through an intravenous line.

Oklahoma executed a death row inmate Thursday for killing a baby in 1997 in the state’s first lethal injection since a botched one last spring. Prison officials declared Charles Frederick Warner dead at 7:28 p.m. CST Thursday. The execution lasted 18 minutes. “Before I give my final statement, I’ll tell you they poked me five times. It hurt. It feels like acid,” Warner said before the execution began. He added, “I’m not a monster. I didn’t do everything they said I did.” […] It was the second time Oklahoma used the sedative midazolam as part of a three-drug method, which...

Alam says within minutes, he watched as the spout of water grew and the canopy over his gas pumps was no match for it. "It was like a tsunami like a tornado." The pressure from the water collapsed the metal structure. The force even blew a hole in the rear window of Alam's car - which was parked just a few feet away. No one was hurt, but Alam's insurance company says it's going to take $65,000 to fix the canopy. "My insurance said the city should take care of that." But, at this point, a city attorney says Tulsa...

The rapid decline in oil prices could have a significant negative impact on the Oklahoma economy. Taxes associated with production, sales taxes, corporate taxes, income taxes, employment, and housing markets can all be expected to suffer without a rebound in oil prices, which seems unlikely in the near future. Oil continued to fall on Tuesday as prices neared 6 year lows before regaining some ground... Brent crude has fallen roughly 70% since June while West Texas Intermediate (U.S. crude) has fallen approximately 55% in the same time period. To date the largest oil and natural gas companies in the state...

Oklahoma this week plans to conduct its first execution since a faulty lethal injection last April led to U.N. criticism and prompted President Barack Obama to seek a re-examination of how capital punishment is implemented in the United States. The state is set to execute child rapist and murderer Charles Warner on Thursday after spending months revising its protocol for the death chamber to prevent the shortcomings with its last execution. Lawyers for death row inmates said even with the new protocols, the state's execution process remained deeply flawed. They are seeking a court-ordered halt on grounds the Oklahoma process...

At the start of the last Congress, John Cornyn wrote an editorial titled “Partial Government Shutdown May Be Needed to Restore Fiscal Sanity.” He’s singing a different tune today. “I’ve evolved,” the Texas Republican and newly minted Senate majority whip said in an interview last week with CQ Roll Call. For starters, the memory of the 2013 shutdown over Obamacare instigated by his fellow Texas senator, Ted Cruz, remains fresh. “Part of wisdom is to learn from your experiences, and I think we learned the hard way that shutdowns are not well received by the American people,” Cornyn said. “And...

At the end of last year, with most of his colleagues stuck in Washington for an important Senate session on a Saturday, Sen. James M. Inhofe was in Tulsa getting spurs fastened onto a pair of boots. “They’re ostrich,” said Inhofe (R-Okla.), the country’s most prominent climate-change denier, referring to his footwear. “Probably some endangered species; I have a reputation to maintain.” Inhofe could have been wearing Birkenstocks and it wouldn’t have put a dent in his notoriety. The senator cemented his status as public enemy No. 1 for environmentalists long ago, topping it off with his 2012 book on...

NORMAN, Okla. – A spate of mysterious booms has been shaking a city in central Oklahoma. Oklahoma Geological Survey research seismologist Austin Holland says a series of thunderous booms rattled the Norman area at 11:19 a.m. Friday and that numerous more were reported in the same place around the same time Thursday.

A new proposal in Oklahoma would bar drunk drivers from buying or consuming alcohol -- and already is raising concerns over how it would be enforced. Fox 25 in Oklahoma City reports that state Sen. Patrick Anderson is proposing a bill that would allow a judge to enforce the alcohol restrictions on anyone with a DUI charge for a set period of time.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) called GOP challenges to Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) “pretty unprofessional and very disappointing” on Monday. Cole, a close ally to Boehner, said the challenges aren’t serious and blasted Republicans trying to unseat the Speaker for not trying to do so when the GOP held its internal discussions late last year. “Well, I don’t think they’re very serious,” he said while appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe" of the bids by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) to challenge Boehner for speakership. “And frankly, they’re pretty disappointing in the sense that anyone who wanted to...

On his way out of the door, his final day as a U.S. Senator, Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) released a blistering oversight report that finds the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) isn’t “successfully executing any of its five main missions.” Coburn’s criticisms include, but also predate, the Obama administration. Among the key findings: · DHS spent $50 billion over the past eleven years on counterterrorism programs but cannot demonstrate if the nation is more secure as a result. · 700 miles of the Southern border remain unsecured. · DHS is not effectively administering or enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. Only...

Former Arkansas Governor wrote in 2013 that Common Core state standards are “near and dear to my heart,” Gotnews.com has learned. The pro-Common Core stance of the former governor is of new interest now that Huckabee is contemplating a run for the presidency in 2016. Here’s an article from the Tulsa World from June in 2013. “Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee urged Oklahoma lawmakers to resist throwing out new educational standards the Legislature approved back in 2010.” “ In a letter to Oklahoma lawmakers this week, he said the Common Core state standards have been “near and dear to my...

WASHINGTON - First District Congressman Jim Bridenstine said Saturday he could get behind U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida as speaker of the House. "Congressman Ted Yoho is a courageous leader," Bridenstine said in a press release."I applaud and respect him for standing up to offer an alternative to the status quo. "I could certainly vote for Ted Yoho as speaker of the House."

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) issued a statement on Saturday detailing why he’s going to vote against House Speaker John Boehner’s re-election on Tuesday. Massie, who’s entering his second term as a member from Kentucky, now becomes the second Republican House member announcing the coming rebellion against Boehner. Massie joins Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) in the fight for fresh leadership, and in his statement he detailed how Boehner and his leadership actually have misled members of the House GOP conference. “For years I watched Washington from afar and suspected that something was broken. Why is it that so many people approve...

An Oklahoma lawmaker has introduced a bill that would make wearing a hoodie — the popular cold-weather garment that protects your face and head from the elements — a crime punishable by a fine of up to $500, KFOR (Oklahoma City) is reporting. Ostensibly, the proposed hoodie ban is meant to make Oklahoma safer from people who would conceal their identity, but civil liberties groups argue the ban is little more than another means of racial profiling.

The average price for a gallon of gas has dropped for 99 days in a row, with six states – Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Missouri – having average prices under $2 for the first time since 2009, according to price surveys Friday. Prices have plummeted about 40 percent since the start of June. Put another way, the Auto Club estimates that Americans are saving $500 million -- per day, each day – compared to the high prices paid last spring, allowing that money to be spent with businesses other than oil companies or just kept in the savings...

The day after Republicans won the largest majority in the House of Representatives in almost 100 years and won a significant majority in the Senate, our liberal activist president claimed to hear the voices of all the people who didn’t vote. It was another example of stunning obstinacy from this president. It seemed Democrats were melting down, Republicans were unified, and all we had to do was buy enough time to get our Republican reinforcements to Washington in January. Like President Obama, Speaker John Boehner must have heard voices that didn’t vote. Together, they crafted the CR/omnibus, a $1.1 trillion...

Dr. Naresh G. Patel, who is accused of providing abortion-inducing drugs to women he knew were not pregnant, is no longer medically licensed in Oklahoma. A doctor accused of providing abortion-inducing drugs to three undercover investigators who were not actually pregnant can no longer practice medicine in Oklahoma. Dr. Naresh G. Patel, 62, of Oklahoma City, on Monday agreed not to practice medicine in the state, pending an investigation into the allegations by the state Medical Licensure Board. Patel was arrested Dec. 9 at his Warr Acres clinic and is charged with one count of racketeering and three counts of...

Oklahoma's last execution went so badly that the state tried to cancel it before it was over. With the inmate writhing while the lethal drugs seeped into his body, his executioners drew the viewing gallery curtains, concealing what the warden later described as "a bloody mess." The botched execution of Clayton Lockett in April and other troubling ones this year in Ohio and Arizona gave capital punishment opponents a flicker of hope that areas of the country that most enthusiastically support the death penalty might have a change of heart. They didn't.

There have been more than 500 magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes in Oklahoma this year, up significantly from 109 in 2013 and just 35 in 2012, according to U.S. Geological Survey officials. As of Monday, there were 549 of the higher magnitude quakes in 2014, with 19 being magnitude 4.0 or greater. USGS officials focused on magnitude 3.0 or greater quakes because the smaller the magnitude, the more potential there is for missing an event, USGS Geophysicist Robert Williams said. The USGS is looking into the increase in earthquakes, mostly occurring in central and north-central Oklahoma, he said. “Starting probably...

“My relationship with Barack Obama is not based on my political philosophy or his,” Coburn told Lesley Stahl. “It’s based on the fact that he’s a genuinely very smart, nice guy.” “I just love him as a man,” Coburn said. “I think he’s a neat man.

An Oklahoma City abortion doctor was charged Thursday with racketeering — a felony offense punishable by at least 10 years in prison. Dr. Naresh G. Patel, 62, also was charged with three counts of obtaining money by false pretenses. Patel was arrested Dec. 9 at his Warr Acres clinic after an undercover fraud investigation. The clinic, Outpatient Services for Women, has not reopened since his arrest. He is accused of providing abortion-inducing drugs to three female undercover investigators who posed as patients. Each paid the clinic $620. Women not pregnant Each time, Patel did an ultrasound on the woman’s abdomen,...

OKLAHOMA CITY – After legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, Colorado is at the heart of a lawsuit. The Denver Post is reporting that Nebraska and Oklahoma have filed a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to strike down Colorado’s legalization laws. The Colorado attorney general’s office says the lawsuit alleges “that Colorado’s Amendment 64 and its implementing legislation regarding marijuana is unconstitutional under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.” “Because neighboring states have expressed concern about Colorado-grown marijuana coming into their states, we are not entirely surprised by this action,” said Colorado Attorney General John...

Seven more states signed on to a lawsuit challenging President Obama's executive action halting the deportation of as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants, bringing the total to 24 states, Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday. The new states to join the coalition were Arizona, Florida, Arkansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Ohio and Oklahoma. The original 17 states, including Alabama, Kansas and Texas, filed suit in U.S. District Court last week, arguing that Obama overstepped his powers in enacting such changes on his own. "The president's proposed executive decree violates the U.S. Constitution and federal law, circumvents the will of...